Joseph Joon "Jojopyun" Pyun was the most sought-after player in the LCS and LEC offseason — Cloud9's decision to drop their midlaner came as a shock to many, and it sent teams across Europe and the Americas scrambling to sign him. Only eight days after his contract was removed from the GCD, the 20-year-old Canadian prodigy eventually settled on joining MAD Lions KOI, as reported by Sheep Esports, but his journey to that decision was anything but straightforward.

Last year, LIIV Sandbox — now known as BNK FearX — made an unprecedented offer to Jojopyun, hoping to sign the LCK's first-ever North American player. In the end, Cloud9 emerged victorious in the negotiations, and Jojopyun went through with his verbal agreement to play for the North American organization. This year, he hoped to remedy that mistake.

Playing in the LCK with FearX was Jojopyun's first choice — however, unlike last year, he didn't receive an offer from them. FOX may have been interested in signing him, but the LCK offseason starts much later than in the West; he had to move on to avoid losing the rest of his options.

Roleswap offers in the LCS

His second choice also would've been a fan-favorite: A reunion with Kacper "Inspired" Słoma on FlyQuest. Like FOX, FLY was one of the teams desperate to sign Jojopyun when Cloud9 picked him up last year. Now, though, Song "Quad" Su-hyeong is the centerpiece of the roster — a brilliant player who seems to only be improving. They never considered dropping him.

FlyQuest did, however, consider signing Jojopyun. Though it never resulted in a concrete offer, they were interested in picking him up as a toplaner in the place of Gabriël "Bwipo" Rau. It wasn't Jojopyun's ideal option anymore — he wanted to play mid for FLY above almost all else, not toplane.

With FlyQuest still competing at Worlds — meaning the door to further negotiation wasn't completely closed — Jojopyun entertained offers from several other LCS and LEC teams. In the LCS, he was a priority for Shopify Rebellion and 100 Thieves — but, much like FLY, the latter had no plans of dropping their immensely talented midlaner.

If Jojopyun took the offer from 100 Thieves, the team wouldn't be able to swap him or Lim "Quid" Hyeon-seung to the toplane — Rayan "Sniper" Shoura is one of the LCS's best prospects, after all. Instead, they planned to pull off the maneuver that made G2's 2019 roster infamous: Quid would play ADC, and Jojopyun would play mid.

First NA player in the LEC

At some point during Worlds, FLY told Jojopyun that it was highly unlikely they'd be able to pick him up as a midlaner, leaving him with no reason to keep waiting for their elimination from the tournament. He decided to commit to Europe, where his chances of qualifying for an international tournament would be significantly higher — next year, the LEC will get one more slot at MSI and Worlds than the Americas North Conference.

In Europe, as previously corroborated by Sheep Esports reporting, Team Heretics and MAD Lions KOI made offers to Jojopyun. By rejecting the former's offer, jojopyun forced them to choose between their next options — Kamil "Kamiloo" Haudegond and Vincent "Vetheo" Berrié. As reported by Sheep Esports, they chose to promote Kamiloo directly from LFL Division 2.

Before he finally committed to joining MAD Lions KOI, Fnatic also reached out to have a conversation with the player, but it never happened — Jojopyun had already essentially made up his mind about joining MDK.

In the end, he decided to make history: By joining MDK, he is set to be the first North American player to play in the LEC. When he chose to join Cloud9's superteam last year, Jojopyun closed the door on options he would've loved in retrospect — though teams still consider him one of the best players in the West, he'll have to use this year to prove he deserves a spot on one of the very best rosters in the West.